Kingston wraps up road work at site of Monday's water main break

City workers repair the pavement at the intersection of Washington Avenue and North Front Street in Uptown Kingston on Wednesday, two days after the road had to be torn up to fix a water main break. City Water Superintendent Judith Hansen said the break did not cause a sinkhole and that the repair work was to be completed by the end of Wednesday. (Freeman photo by Tania Barricklo)

KINGSTON, N.Y. -- City crews were to finish road work by the end of Wednesday where a water main cracked two days earlier at Washington Avenue and North Front Street.

Kingston Water Superintendent Judith Hansen said the damaged pipe was fixed shortly after the problem was discovered on Monday but that a void then developed between the pipe and the surface of the road, causing a small collapse of the pavement.

Hansen stressed, though, that "it is not another sinkhole" -- a reference to the sinkhole on Washington Avenue near Linderman Avenue that's been blamed on a leaky underground stormwater tunnel. That hole, which has diverted traffic and caused headaches for neighbors and nearby businesses, is in the process of being fixed.

Hansen said city Department of Public Works and Water Department employees were at the Washington-North Front intersection today to do fill work and blacktopping.

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Early Monday, a tractor-trailer trying to get around the water main break, drove onto the adjacent Trailways bus station property and damaged the canopy under which the buses load and unload passengers and also caused some structural damage to the station itself. Police said the truck driver disregarded the posted height restriction.